CVE-2008-1855 in CMA
Summary
by MITRE
FrameworkService.exe in McAfee Common Management Agent (CMA) 3.6.0.574 Patch 3 and earlier, as used by ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) and ProtectionPilot (PrP), allows remote attackers to corrupt memory and cause a denial of service (CMA Framework service crash) via a long invalid method in requests for the /spin//AVClient//AVClient.csp URI, a different vulnerability than CVE-2006-5274.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/31/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-1855 affects the McAfee Common Management Agent (CMA) version 3.6.0.574 Patch 3 and earlier implementations within the ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) and ProtectionPilot (PrP) environments. This issue resides in the FrameworkService.exe component which serves as a critical communication interface for managing and monitoring security policies across distributed systems. The flaw manifests when the service processes malformed requests targeting the specific URI path /spin//AVClient//AVClient.csp, where attackers can exploit improper input validation mechanisms to inject excessively long invalid method parameters.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through memory corruption techniques that specifically target the FrameworkService.exe process memory management structures. When the service receives a request containing an abnormally long invalid method parameter, it fails to properly validate or sanitize the input before processing, leading to buffer overflow conditions or other memory corruption scenarios. This results in the immediate termination of the FrameworkService.exe process, causing a complete denial of service condition that disrupts the management capabilities of the entire McAfee security infrastructure.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to enterprise security operations as it can be exploited remotely without requiring authentication credentials, making it particularly dangerous in production environments. The denial of service condition effectively disables the CMA service functionality, preventing security policy updates, threat intelligence synchronization, and real-time monitoring capabilities across managed endpoints. The vulnerability's classification aligns with CWE-121, which addresses stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and represents a critical weakness in input validation and memory management practices within the McAfee security management framework.
Security professionals should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to restrict access to the affected CMA service ports, deployment of network intrusion detection systems to monitor for suspicious URI patterns, and application of the vendor-provided patches that address the specific input validation flaws. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under T1499.004 for Network Denial of Service, while the underlying memory corruption aspects fall under T1059.007 for Command and Scripting Interpreter, highlighting the need for comprehensive defensive measures. Organizations should also consider implementing additional monitoring for anomalous request patterns targeting the specific URI path and establish incident response procedures to address potential exploitation attempts.